Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Sunday the U.S. government would soon designate the Cartel de los Soles (“Cartel of the Suns”), an intercontinental drug trafficking operation run through the Venezuelan military, a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
In his statement confirming the group would soon appear on the FTO list – triggering a devastating array of sanctions and blacklisting its members in the United States – Rubio stated explicitly that Washington believes the cartel’s leader is Nicolás Maduro, the socialist dictator of Venezuela.
“Based in Venezuela, the Cartel de los Soles is headed by Nicolás Maduro and other high-ranking individuals of the illegitimate Maduro regime,” Rubio’s statement read, “who have corrupted Venezuela’s military, intelligence, legislature, and judiciary.”
“Neither Maduro nor his cronies represent Venezuela’s legitimate government,” he continued. “Cartel de los Soles by and with other designated FTOs including Tren de Aragua and the Sinaloa Cartel are responsible for terrorist violence throughout our hemisphere as well as for trafficking drugs into the United States and Europe.”
The Tren de Aragua is an organized criminal gang once based in Aragua state, Venezuela, that became an international menace after Maduro ordered a “raid” of its headquarters, the Tocorón prison in Aragua, that resulted in large numbers of its imprisoned members and its leader escaping. The whereabouts of Tren de Aragua chief Héctor Guerrero remain unknown at press time; the U.S. government is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to his capture.
The administration of President Donald Trump is also offering $50 million for information leading to the arrest of Nicolás Maduro and $25 million for Diosdado Cabello, Maduro’s interior minister who for years reports have identified as the leader of the Cartel de los Soles. More recent infomation, in particular a report published in July 2024 by the Miami Herald, have suggested Maduro has since elevated his profile within the organization and assumed direct involvement in drug trafficking.
The Cartel de los Soles will appear on the FTO list beginning on November 24, according to the State Department.
Appearing on the State Department’s FTO list allows the U.S. government to ban any individual tied to that organization from entering the country and to remove anyone already present on U.S. territory identified as a member of representative of the group. The U.S. government mandates the freezing of any organization assets present in the country and allows for the criminal prosecution of any individuals found to have offered “material support or resources” to the group, including financial support, expertise, or training. The designation will likely compromise Maduro’s ability to travel to the United States, as well as that of any high-ranking individual tied to the Cartel, such as Cabello. While most of the Venezuelan regimes most prominent leaders actively avoid traveling to America, Maduro has made multiple appearances at the United Nations General Assembly, which has also allowed him to attend Marxist propaganda events.
The organized crime analysis organization Insight Crime notes in its profile of the Cartel de los Soles that it had its beginnings in drug trafficking via the Venezuelan military during the reign of late dictator Hugo Chávez and was named for the sun medallions on Venezuelan military uniforms.
“Rather than a hierarchical organization, the Cartel of the Suns functions as a loose network of cells within the army, navy, air force, and Bolivarian National Guard (Guardia Nacional Bolivariana – GNB),” Insight Crime explains, “spanning from the lowest to the highest ranks. These groups operate essentially as drug trafficking organizations.”
In 2015, two years after Chávez’s death, a defecting former Chávez security officer identified Cabello in remarks to reporters as the head of the Cartel de los Soles. Leamsy Salazar also identified Tareck El Aissami – a now-disgraced former Oil Minister who was once one of Maduro’s most powerful henchman – as a key actor in running the cartel. At the time, reports suggested that Cabello was more active in the administration of the drug operation, which Maduro merely benefitted financially from associating with it. Cabello attempted to sue the Wall Street Journal for publishing reports that he was under investigation for drug trafficking, but U.S. courts dismissed the lawsuit on the grounds that Cabello never proved he was not under investigation for drug trafficking.
Secretary Rubio, a senator at the time, referred to Cabello in 2017 as the “Pablo Escobar of Venezuela.” Shortly after Rubio’s denunciation, U.S. intelligence officials reportedly identified evidence that Cabello had attempted to organize an assassination plot against Rubio.
In 2024, the Miami Herald reported that an unsealed federal court indictment revealed evidence that Maduro was, in fact, a senior leader in the cartel, rather than an associated protector. Maduro since promoted Cabello, a former senior leader of the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and talk show host, to be the nation’s minister of the interior.
The FTO designation follows weeks of American military operations in the Caribbean Sea intended to stop massive drug shipments from entering the United States. On Sunday, the U.S. Navy confirmed that the world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, and its strike group had entered the Caribbean Sea on President Trump’s orders.
RELATED: Whoah! Two Drug Vessels Obliterated in Eastern Pacific
“The carrier strike group will join joint forces already in the Caribbean Sea, including the Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group and embarked marine expeditionary unit, as part of Joint Task Force Southern Spear, established to defeat and dismantle criminal networks that exploit our shared borders and maritime domains,” the Navy explained. “Southern Spear” is the official name of the military operation targeting organized drug trafficking in the Caribbean.
Asked about the positioning of the aircraft carrier in an interview in early November, Trump answered, “it’s gotta be somewhere. It’s a big one.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly stated that it does not consider Nicolás Maduro the legitimate president of Venezuela, given the numerous sham elections he has staged and the violent and systematic repression of legitimate presidential candidates.
“President Trump has been very clear and consistent. He’s prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice,” Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in August. “The Maduro regime is not the legitimate government of Venezuela. It is a narco-terror cartel.”
